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Our group has been invited to participate on a workshop in “Observable Solvent Effects” held at Georg-August universität in Göttingen. Dr. Emilio J. Cocinero gave a talk on “Microwave and laser spectroscopies for structural elucidation and as chemical tools”. Otger Crehuet gave a talk on “Large homo and heteroclusters of …

Maider Parra gave a talk at the 26th International Conference on High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy entittled “Challenging the limits of rotational spectroscopy: gas phase structural elucidation of multiconformational macrolactones”

Otger Crehuet gave a talk at the the 26th International Conference on High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy entittled “Conformational study of the synthetic repellents DEET and Picaridin to improve structure-based design of novel mosquito repellents”

Maider Parra gave a talk at the XIII Conference of Young Researchers in Atomic and Molecular Physics (J2IFAM 2022) entitled “Challenging the limits of rotational spectroscopy: gas phase structural elucidation of multiconformational macrolactones”. For this talk has been awarded the prize for the best talk of J2IFAM 2022..

Otger Crehuet gave a talk at the XIII Conference of Young Researchers in Atomic and Molecular Physics (J2IFAM 2022) entitled “Astrochemistry, search in the interstellar medium and laboratory detection of bioligically relevant molecules”.

Emilio J. Cocinero gave a talk in the 4th Glycobasque meeting entitled “Fluorination and deoxygenation as chemical tools to study the conformational preferences of hexopyranoses: a journey from gas phase to solution”

Maider Parra presented a poster entitled “Gas phase structural elucidation of multiconformational macrolactones by means of high-resolution rotational spectroscopy. Otger Crehuet gave a talk entitled “Laboratory observation of 4-Oxobutanitrile structure for search in the interstellar medium” In the picture below Maider Parra and Otger Crehuet with the collaborations presented

Emilio J. Cocinero went to a visit at Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) to the laboratoy managed by Pierre Çarçabal. In the picture below Pierre Çarçabal (left) and Emilio Cocinero (right)

The paper The Role of Non‑Covalent Interactions on Cluster Formation: Pentamer, Hexamers and Heptamer of Difluoromethane has been accepted in Angewandte Chemie Journal and considered as “hot paper”. Congratulations!

“Campusa”, the Journal of the University of the Basque Country, has published a press release about the paper “Laboratory Observation of, Astrochemical Search for, and Structure of Elusive Erythrulose in the Interstellar Medium”. Click here to read the publication.      

Our paper “Laboratory Observation of, Astrochemical Search for, and Structure of Elusive Erythrulose in the Interstellar Medium” has been  highlighted as cover in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.  

The Biofisika Fundation has hired Camilla Calabrese as a Senior Researcher and she will continue in our group this year. Congratulations!

Elena R. Alonso wins the Juan de La Cierva Postdoctoral Fellowship and will be in our Group until 2022. Congratulations!  

Rotational spectroscopy provides the most powerful means of identifying molecules of biological interest in the interstellar medium (ISM), but despite their importance, the detection of carbohydrates has remained rather elusive. Here, we present a comprehensive Fourier transform rotational spectroscopic study of elusive erythrulose, a sugar building block likely to be …

Our paper “Conformational impact of aliphatic side chains in local anaesthetics: benzcaine, butamben and isobutamben” has been highlighted by Association ASEVA in July!    

Bond length alternation is a chemical phenomenon in benzene rings fused to other rings, which has been mainly predicted theoretically. Its physical origin is still not clear and has generated discussion. Here, by using a strategy that combines microwave spectroscopy, custom‐made synthesis and high‐level ab initio calculations, we demonstrate that …

Pierre Çarçabal, from Université Paris Sud, visited the Spectroscopy Group for a week. It was a pleasure!

Modern structural studies of biologically relevant molecules require an exhaustive interplay between experiment and theory. In this work, we present two examples where a poor choice of the theoretical method led to a misinterpretation of experimental results. We do that by performing a rotational spectroscopy study on two large and …

We report that two seemingly similar variants of Tn antigens have very different conformations in water. Using interdisciplinary approaches, both experimental and computational, the team showed that the threonine-linked Tn antigen assumes a rigid form in solution and forms a persistent water pocket. In contrast, the serine-linked Tn antigen lacks …

We report the potential of state-of-the-art rotational technique (recently built at the University of the Basque Country) with an extended molecular analysis of three biomolecules combined to quantum chemical calculations and crystallized data comparison. The results are impressive: more than 8000 transitions have been assigned, corresponding to the rotational structures …

This work shows the potential of semiempirical structures and how its use can be extended for the determination of accurate equilibrium structures of moderate-sized molecules. This work was a collaboration with the groups of Natalja Vogt at the University of Ulm, Alberto Lesarri at the University of Valladolid. The cover …

A collaboration with researchers from POLYMAT, the University of the Basque Country (UPV / EHU), the University of Barcelona, the Bioengineering Institute of Barcelona (IBEC) and the University of Aveiro, have developed a new family of molecular or nanowire cables that open new horizons in molecular electronics. The research has …

This work addresses the structural properties of the nicotinoid cotinine and offers the chance to compare the results to nicotine, the prototype of the nicotinoid family. Cotinine was probed in a supersonic jet expansion using the-state-of-the-art time-domain microwave spectroscopy. A new set up is also described in the manuscript. Our …

The prototropic tautomerism in 2-hydroxypridine represents a model for the study of conformational and tautomeric equilibria. The stability of the different species is governed by the balance between electronic and resonance effects and can be greatly influenced by ring substitutions and the presence of solvents. In particular, chlorination in different …

Pierre Çarçabal and Emilio J. Cocinero wrote a book chapter about carbohydrates on the book “Gas-Phase IR Spectroscopy and Structure of Biological Molecules“. The series Topics in Current Chemistry presents critical reviews of the present and future trends in modern chemical research. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical …

Our work about exo-2,3-epoxynorbornane was published on ChemPhysChem, 2015, 16, 2609–2614. We showed a study of exo-2,3-epoxynorbornane in the gas phase by pulsed jet Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy in the 4–18 GHz region. Six isotopologues were observed and characterized in their natural abundance. The experimental substitution and effective structures were obtained. Comparison with the structure of norbornane …

A collaborative study between Pate’s group (Virginia University), Lesarri’s group (University of Valladolid) and our group concluded in PCCP publication which was highlight as Journal cover by the journal. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 18282-18287. In this work we have examined the stereoselectivity of molecular recognition between two molecules of the …

Showcasing research from an international collaboration of the laboratories of J.-U. Grabow, D. McNaughton. and E. J. Cocinero was highlighted by PCCP journal as cover. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 19726-19734 The torsional freedom of the carbon backbone and hydroxyl groups of succinic acid, an important platform chemical finding numerous industrial applications …

Internal dynamics in halogen bonded adducts was studied by microwave spectroscopy of chlorotrifluoromethane – formaldehyde complex. The interesting chemical aspect of this complex is that the two constituting molecules are held together by a halogen bond. The interesting spectroscopic aspects are the features of two large amplitude motions occurring in the complex: …

A work on the intermolecular cluster pyridine-methane in collaboration with the group of Walther Caminati has been chosen as cover of PCCP. Methane behaves in the complex as a noble gas, binding on top of the aromatic ring. This T-shape structure contrasts with the in-plane structure of other pyridine clusters involving halomethanes.

A work in collaboration with the Pate group in Virginia examined the weakly-bound cluster of sevoflurane···benzene ans was published in Angewandte Chemie. The primary interaction is a relatively strong C-H···pi hydrogen bond. The presence of additional C-H···F weak interactions hinders the six-fold symmetric internal rotation of benzene around sevoflurane. This …

A collaboration between four institutions (Oxford, Orsay, Madrid and Bilbao) allowed to investigate Naked and Hydrated conformers of the Conserved Core Pentasaccharide of N-linked Glycoproteins and its Building Blocks. It is the largest system containing sugars studied so far by laser spectroscopy. The manuscript was published in JACS.

A collaboration Valladolid-Bilbao disclosed a clear picture of the conformations of isolated 2-deoxy-D-ribose. The substitution and effective structures of the most abundant conformer was determined. The work was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 52, 11840-11845, (2013).

A reverse micelle was observed in the propofol hexamer without any solvent. The manuscripit was cover in Angewandte Chemie. The national press highlighted this goal.

If you heat scopine you get scopoline. The structure of distorted tropane has been characterized. This work has been published in ChemPhysChem.

The conformational and structural preferences of phenazone (antipyrine), the prototype of non-opioid pyrazolone antipyretics, have been published in The Journal of Chemical Physics. The spectrum exhibited very complicated fine and hyperfine patterns originated by the simultaneous coupling of the methyl group internal rotation and the spins of the two 14N nuclei …

The structure of free fructose has been determined experimentally thanks to enriched samples (six monosubstituted 13C species, and two single D). J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135 (7), pp 2845–2852

Ribose was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 3119, 2012  and selected as journal inside cover and “Hot topic” by the journal. The national press emphasized this achievement.